The First Bancorp named Richard M. Elder, currently executive vice president and treasurer of the bank, their new chief financial officer. He will succeed F. Stephen Ward, who is expected to retire as CFO on March 30, 2018.

Elder will assume the responsibilities of CFO of the First Bancorp’s subsidiary First National Bank as of January 2, 2018, and as CFO of the holding company after Ward’s retirement.

Ward joined First National in 1990 as the director of marketing. He has served as the bank’s and the company’s chief financial officer since 1993.

Elder joined the bank in 1993. After a long career in retail banking, he joined the finance division in early 2017.

Ward will remain with First Bancorp a member of the board of directors of both the bank and the company, pending approval by the company’s shareholders.

First National Bank provides a full range of consumer and commercial banking products and services with 16 offices in Lincoln, Knox, Hancock, Penobscot and Washington Counties in Maine.